The top 10 most expensive signings in Serie A history: Cristiano Ronaldo still top

Juventus have made the five most expensive player buys in the history of Serie A while the league’s other heavy-hitters have been more circumspect when it comes to paying huge fees.

AC Milan, Inter, Lazio and Napoli feature in the top 10 but each contribute just one entry to the list.

Here, TEAMtalk looks into the 10 most expensive players in the history of Serie A.

10. Rafael Leao to AC Milan (€49.5m – August 2019)

AC Milan set a new club record when they jumped in to buy Rafael Leao from Lille OSC in 2019 for €49.5m.

Handing the young winger a long-term contract has worked out for AC Milan who have seen him blossom into a regular starter.

In the 2021/22 season, he was the Serie A player of the season as he led the charge for AC Milan in a Serie A-winning campaign.

9. Gianluigi Buffon to Juventus (€52.9m – July 2001)

Juventus were the only team to ever pay a transfer fee to take on iconic goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon as they broke their club record fee and paid €52.88m to spring him from Parma in July 2001.

At that time Juve were paying the second-highest fee in Serie A history to bring in the man who made the No 1 jersey at club his own for over 15 years.

He would leave Juventus on a free transfer in 2018 but returned a year later after a season with PSG, he departed Juve a second time in 2021 in order to rejoin his first club Parma and finished his career with his boyhood club.

GO DEEPER – The 10 most expensive goalkeeper transfers of all time: Onana to Manchester United, Alisson to Liverpool…

8. Hernan Crespo to Lazio (€56.8m – July 2000)

Just a season before the Buffon move, Parma made a record sale when Lazio came calling for Hernan Crespo after the Argentine striker banged in 22 goals for the Gialloblu in the 1999/2000 Serie A season.

Crespo would do even better in his first campaign for Lazio as he found the net 26 times in Serie A across the following term but Capitolini would cash in on the striker after just two seasons with the Roman club.

Lazio paid €56.81m to bring in Crespo in 2000 and sold him in 2002 for €40m with club president Sergio Cragnotti insisting the star man forced an exit as he wanted to join Inter. Crespo disputed this and levelled accusations of a lack of professionalism at Lazio under his leadership.

7. Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan (€74m – August 2019)

Despite his reputation taking a hit towards the tail-end of his Manchester United spell, Romelu Lukaku still held a €74m price tag when he joined Inter Milan in 2019.

Inter were integral in rehabbing his reputation and would wind up selling him for an incredible €113m to Chelsea just two seasons later.

The Blues have since loaned Lukaku back to Serie A teams twice as they are still unable to get the best out of the Belgian forward.

6. Victor Osimhen to Napoli (€77.5m – September 2020)

Napoli could yet make a profit if they choose to sell Victor Osimhen in the near future and will feel that his €77.5m transfer fee was money well spent.

Osimhen has been a revelation for Napoli since joining from Lille in 2020, helping them to the Scudetto in 2023, and is now a target for Premier League giants.

Napoli are believed to be holding out for a fee of €120m for the Nigeria international.

5. Arthur Melo to Juventus (€80.6m – September 2020)

One of Juventus’ more questionable transfer moves saw them pay well over the odds for Arthur Melo in 2020 as Barcelona received a whopping €80.6m for the defensive midfielder, while Miralem Pjanic moved the other way.

Arthur wasn’t a regular starter at Barcelona and even at the time the fee Juventus agreed appeared to well beyond reasonable.

His loan spell at Fiorentina might see Arthur revive his Serie A career after he finally cracked the 30 league games in a season mark and played more minutes of football than in any other campaign. He remains contracted to Juventus until 2026.

4. Dusan Vlahovic to Juventus (€83.5m – January 2022)

Dusan Vlahovic has proven a good signing for Juventus in terms of adding quality to their squad even if he cost them €83.5m as a 22-year-old late in the 2022 January window.

Vlahovic took his time to settle and grow into his role at Juventus but his 16-goal return in the 2023/24 Serie A season proved that he has made real progress.

Juventus will hope that his upward trajectory continues and that he brings success or at least commands a significant transfer fee in the future.

Dušan Vlahović finds the target again as #JUVNAN finishes 1-1 ⚖️

Full highlights 📺⤵️

— JuventusFC 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@juventusfcen) February 17, 2023

3. Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus (€85.5m – July 2019)

It isn’t often that a teenaged centre-back demands a transfer fee of €85.5m but Ajax Amsterdam felt they had a gem in Matthijs de Ligt and Juventus agreed.

De Ligt managed to work his way through a stint at Juventus where he never truly looked at home in the league as much as his team.

Juventus recovered some of their initial investment when they sold De Ligt to Bayern for €70m in 2022.

2. Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus (€90m – July 2016)

Juventus had no reason to believe that their €90m investment in proven star striker Gonzalo Higuain wasn’t quite going to pan out to their liking when they signed him from Napoli fresh off a Serie A season that saw his score 36 league goals in 35 games.

Higuain didn’t exactly disgrace himself with his returns in Turin but they were deemed insufficient for the club who proceeded to send him out on loan for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons.

The former Real Madrid star closed his career out with a stint at Inter Miami in the MLS.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus (€117m – July 2018)

Cristiano Ronaldo‘s blockbuster move to Juventus in 2018 certainly had its doubters but despite joining the club at 33 and costing them €117m, CR7’s time in Turin was memorable if brief.

He was player of the year in all three seasons he played at Juventus and helped the club to two Serie A titles in his stint.

Ronaldo left Juventus for a modest fee as he accepted a proposal for what ultimately proved an ill-fated return to Manchester United.

READ MORE: The 10 most profitable transfers of all time, including Ronaldo at Man Utd and Coutinho at Liverpool